Margaret LaurelAdvisor to founders · twenty years operating, ten advising

Advice for the founder transitions that don't fit a playbook.

Scaling past yourself. Handing the company to someone else. Deciding whether to sell — and surviving either answer. I work with a handful of founders a year through exactly these seasons, as the one advisor with no stake in the outcome except yours.

Start a conversation Replies within two days, personally.

How I work

three commitments

Understand before advising

The first month is questions — your numbers, your team, your sleep. Most "strategy problems" turn out to be one founder carrying two jobs and a secret. We find the real one.

Few clients, real attention

Six ongoing clients at any time, never two in the same market. When you call between sessions, I know exactly where we left off — because there isn't a roster to page through.

Say the uncomfortable thing

You can buy agreement cheaper elsewhere. The job here is the kind observation your board won't make and your team can't.

Working together

three shapes

Ongoing advisory

Monthly · six-month minimum

Two sessions a month plus the phone calls that actually matter — the Sunday-night ones. For founders in the middle of the transition, not contemplating it.

The Decision Sprint

Four weeks · fixed scope

One decision — sell, succeed, restructure, step back — taken apart and put back together with the numbers, the people, and your own motives on the table. Ends with a memo you could show your board, or your family.

A single conversation

Ninety minutes · occasionally enough

Sometimes the situation needs one outside hour, not a program. If that's you, say so — I'll tell you honestly if I agree.

What clients say

with permission

She asked me four questions in the first hour that nobody — investors, co-founder, spouse — had asked in three years. We sold eighteen months later, on terms I chose, to a buyer I'd have dismissed. — Founder & CEO, logistics software (exited 2024)

Margaret is the reason the succession didn't break the company or the friendship. I'd have paid double. I told her that; she didn't raise the rate. — Co-founder, design manufacturer, 140 people

Founders advised from — consumer goods · logistics · developer tools · hospitality groups · professional services · family manufacturing

About

briefly

Margaret's study — books, ledger, strong light

I built and ran a specialty foods company for nineteen years — 4 people to 300, two near-deaths, one good exit. Then I spent two years finding out that what I missed wasn't the company. It was founders.

Since 2016 I've advised forty-odd of them through scale, succession, and sales. I've sat on both sides of an acquisition table and both ends of a board vote. There's very little you can tell me about your company that will surprise me, and nothing that will leave this room.

Trained mediator; recovering CEO; based in the mountains, on your screen anywhere.

If this sounds like your season, write to me.

Three lines is plenty: the company, the transition, and what's keeping you up. No deck, no intake form. If I'm not the right person, I'll point you to who is.

margaret@laurel.example